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Five Things Friday (Unlinked)

I’m not linking up with anyone. And it’s actually Saturday morning in Singapore. Double fail?

No way! It’s still Friday evening in the US!! And I’m (finally) sharing a blog post, after a week of blog-silence! So that’s a double WIN in my opinion. So let me ease back in by summarizing the last 5 days with 5 pictures for 5 Things Friday. [Am I supposed to be linking up with someone??]

Sunday: My parents arrived in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We finally got to bed around 3 AM, and when everyone finally woke up (at a much more reasonable hour of the morning!), we went for a hike at McRitchie Reservoir, and enjoyed a few minutes of breeze on the Treetop Walk.

Treetop Walk! And a rare sighting of the RWH parents on the blog.

Monday: We took a lengthy walking tour of the historical parts of downtown Singapore. Most of Singapore’s “historical” architecture is less than 50 years old, but we did the best we could. We started with the Dalí sculpture in the UOB Plaza and the Fat Pigeon statue by the river, then caught the other riverside statues, the Cavanaugh Bridge, and the Fairmont Hotel. After a quick glimpse at the Merlion, we headed across the river to the Esplanade, where we visited my cousin’s art exhibit, My Beautiful Indies: A Rereading, which will be exhibited in the Jendela visual arts space until Jan. 5 (Shameless Plug: Singapore folks, you should go! It’s free!).

We walked back around to the Victoria Theater and Old Parliament House which were, unfortunately, all covered by scaffolding and under construction. Dad was disappointed by the crappy photo ops, but I pointed out that things under construction are the quintessential Singapore! We assuaged him by having him pose with the Sir Stamford Raffles Statue. We continued on to St. Andrews Cathedral, past Raffles Hotel, and on to the National Museum. Whew!! However, all the photos of those escapades are on my parent’s camera. So I’ll leave you with this one, which captures how I’ve been getting in my workouts: By getting up extra early. No one misses me then.

Bus stop at dawn – on my way to the gym!

Tuesday: Christmas Eve! We hosted KMN’s family for dinner, so spent the day in a place that my family loves to be: The kitchen! We cooked up a dinner of Asian mushroom soup, Adobo pork loin, roasted root veggies, and cranberry sauce. I, of course, insisted on the American Christmas tradition of a cookie plate:

Wednesday: KMN’s family enthusiastically welcomed our whole crew for Christmas Dinner. But before that, we enjoyed a pretty low-key Christmas day – baking pumpkin pies (to bring for dinner), enjoying a few gifts, and playing games.

Reason #529 that KMN belongs in our family: He understands the Games + Chocolate tradition, and happily shared his box of Christmas chocolates with us during an intense Scrabble session.

Thursday: We took a day trip out to Pulau Ubin, a tiny island that’s a 10 minute boat ride off the mainland. The main attraction for us was the Chek Jawa Nature Reserve, one of the few places in Singapore where the coastline is preserved in its natural state (sand bars, sea grass ‘fields’, and protected habitats formed by mangrove swamps). The easiest way to get around the small island is by bike. Everyone played:

If it’s a bit blurry, that’s because I was taking it behind me, while I was riding.

So that summarizes our last 5 days. And now, we’re off for a few more adventures (YAY!) before my parents leave on Monday (BOO!).

What is your favorite (old or new) tradition in which you participated this holiday season?
I love when my whole family works together in the kitchen! Food is one of our love languages.

If you could hear more about ONE of these days, which would it be?
[Sneaky way to get a quick reader survey in there, eh? :)]

Is he Italian? Don’t Italians traditionally have a big seafood fest on Christmas Eve?

I would *love* to have a Christmas Day running tradition – but somehow, I still struggle balancing family, hosting, food preparation, and running on the big gathering holidays. I suppose that’s one advantage to living far from family and keeping celebrations local!

It’s great that your parents are visiting! Enjoy every minute with them!

One of our favorite holiday traditions is “Book Night.” We go to a local town center to Barnes and Noble and spend a couple of hours with our noses in books. It’s part-two of the boys’ Christmas gifts. They get to pick out any books they want! After the book store we have dinner and then walk around the town center checking out the lights and store front decorations! It’s a delightful evening!

We were saying the same thing about continuing this tradition with our grandchildren when they come along, and hoping that paper books still exist. Our local Barnes and Noble closed since last year, so we had to drive a little farther away…

Ha! I’m assisted by a few things: First of all, Singapore is relatively small. Second, there are some well-established “tourist” things to do – then I can add on my own afterward. 🙂 Third, we’ve had a number of visitors already, so I tend to know the things they like. Hey, wanna come visit Singapore? 🙂

And yes, Pulau Ubin is probably worthy of a whole post. Now, I just have to steal some photos from KMN… =)

It’s so nice that your parents could be over to share Christmas with you.

We really don’t have too many traditions but one that I’ve instigated over the last couple of years is to bake bagels on Christmas morning for your lunch. Everyone helps with the kneading so it’s a family activity.

In the US, my parents usually host Christmas Eve, and we basically have a dinner of appetizers/finger food, too!!!! I wanted to do that this year, for my Singapore family, but they tend to like a more traditional meal, and we had a bit of a time crunch. And although we dint do PJs anymore, when we were kids, we would definitely get new ones for Christmas Eve!! Him. Maybe that’s a tradition that needs to come back… 🙂

There is a reason that we are one of the only apartments in Singapore with a dishwasher! Doesn’t help much with the pots and pans, but it does take away the sting of everything else!! :). And a double bonus of having my parents around? My Dad is a dish washing extraordinaire!! 🙂

I’m glad your parents were able to come visit y’all for Christmas! How many times have they been to Singapore since you moved there? Your early morning at the bus stop picture makes me think of vacation running at Myrtle Beach for some reason… probably because I run early in the morning and part of my run is on a sidewalk in front of hotels/condo’s and that’s exactly what your picture looks like. I’d like to hear more about your trip to Pulau Ubin!

Hope y’all enjoyed the rest of your time together and went on more fun adventures!

This was their first trip since we moved – but they came out when we had our wedding dinner here (a few years before we moved). That was a very rushed and stressful trip, though – this was much calmer and comfortable!

I was really excited to read about the Dali and the pigeon sculptures especially because I am a massive fan of Dali and I can’t get over the fact that we have such a huge piece of work by him right in the middle of town!

Do those peanut butter blossoms have chocolate in the centre? Because they look DELICIOUS. And also, the street looks very beautiful and peaceful in the dawn photo… What time do you usually have to get to bed to wake up that early?

Oh, yes they do! Hershey’s kisses – some were milk, and some were dark, chocolate. Swing by one day and I’ll make a batch for you – they’re especially nice in Singapore, since the chocolate never really re-hardens, so it’s kind of a mushy frosting on top…If you have a peanut butter/chocolate sweet tooth, then these are for you! 🙂

I don’t really get quite enough sleep, is the honest truth. I usually go to bed around midnight and wake up around 6-6:30. I could probably do with lights out around 11 instead, but my husband tends to work a bit later, so I stay up so we can have an hour together in the evening…